mckenna



No. e|s,|s2. Patented Jan. 24, I899. n. McKENNA.

URATORY. Application filled Mar. 28, 1898.) (No Model.) 2 Shaets8heet l.

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INVENTOR THE NORRIS PETERS co. noTc-LITHm wasmuorom u c N0. 6|8,l82. Patented Jan. 24, I899. D. MCKENNA.

ORATURY.

Application filed. Mar. 28, 1898.) (No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

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WITNESSES INVENTOR m: Mourns PEYERS w. PKOYOLXTNOY. \VlSHlNGYGN a c.

Ihvrrno STATES AiENT OFFICE.

DAVID HCKENNA, OF WATERBURY, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO MARY E. BRENNAN, OF SAME PLACE.

ORATO RY.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 618,182, dated January 24, 1899.

Appllcation'filed March 28, 1s 98.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, DAVID MCKENNA, a citizen of the United States, residing at Waterbury,county of New Haven, State of Connectiout, have invented a new and useful Oratory,

of which the following is a specification.

My invention has for its object to provide at slight expense and without loss of floorspace an oratory, prie-dieu, or miniature chapel having an altar before which a person may kneel at his devotions, the altar being wholly concealed until required for purposes of devotion and the whole structure being adapted to be attached to a bedstead and requiringno additional spacein theroom. With this end in view I have devised the novel oratory to be used in connection with an ordinary bedstead which I will now describe, referring by numbers and letters to the accomcompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, in which Figure 1 is an elevation of a bedstead, showing the application thereto of my novel oratory, the parts being in the normal positiont'. e., the altar being concealed; Fig. 2, a similar view, the parts being as in use, the doors which conceal the altar'being thrown open and the kneeling-board being at its lowered position; Fig. 3, a rear View, on an en- 0 larged scale, of the cabinet which contains the altar and showing electrical connections; Fig. 4, a side elevation corresponding with Fig. 2, with the exception that the doors which conceal the altar have not been opened by pressure upon the kneeling-board; Fig. 5, a section on an enlarged scale on the line to a: in Figs. 1 and 3; Fig. 6, a section on the line y y in Figs. 1 and 3; and Fig. 7 is a view similar to Fig. 6, but showing the doors in the opened position.

A denotes the headboard, and B the footboard, of an ordinary bedstead.

My novel oratory consists, essentially, of a cabinet C, which is attached to the headboard 45 of the bed, and a kneeling-board D, which is attached to the footboard of the bed. The cabinet may be built wholly separate from the bedstead and attached thereto by screws 1 or in an ordinary orpreferred manner. The 50 material of which the cabinet is made is not Serial No. 675,395. (No model.)

of the essence of my invention. I find it desirable in practice to make the cabinets of wood and to finish or decorate them to correspond with the bedstead. The design of the cabinets likewise is not of the essence of my invention, although I preferably make them of a design suggestive of the use for which they are intendedfor example, a reproduction in miniature of a Gothic chapel surmounted by a cross. Within the cabinet I place an altar 2 and lamps or candles 3. The cabinet is provided in front with doors 4 and 5, which are opened by means of the kneelingboard and intermediate connecting mechanism, which may be pneumatic or electrical, and closed by a spring when pressure upon the kneeling-board is relieved. For the purposes of this specification I have illustrated and described pneumatic connecting mechanism only. The doors are hinged or pivoted in any suitable manner, as by vertical pivots 6, and are connected at the top by means of a rod 7, one end of which is pivoted directly to door 4, as at 8, the other end being pivoted to an arm 9, which extends obliquely from door 5, as is clearly shown in Fig. 5.

1O denotes a spring, the action of which is to throw the doors to the closed position. In the present instance I have shown a coilspring, one end of which is connected to arm 9, the other to a pin or stud 11 in the cabinet. At the bottom the doors are connected by a rod 12, similar to rod 7, which lies under the floor 13 of the cabinet. One end of rod 12 is pivoted to a pin 14, which extends downward from the bottom of door at and passes through a'slot 15 in floor 13.

16 denotes an arm corresponding to arm 9 at the top, which extends obliquely from the bottom ofdoor 5 and is pivoted to rod 12, as at 17. In the present instance I have shown rod 12 as made longer than rod 7 and as provided with a head 18, which is adapted to lie closely in contact with a collapsible bulb 19. (See Figs. 6 and 7.), Bulb 19 is connected by 5 means of a flexible tube 20 with another collapsible bulb 21, which is secured under the bed near the foot, as is clearly shown in Figs. 2 and 4:.

D denotes the kneeling-board,which is piv- 10o oted at the bottom of the footboard of the bedstead. This kneeling-board is provided with an extension 22, which is adapted to come in contact with bulb 21 when the kneeling-board is dropped to the lowered position, as is clearly shown in Figs. 2 and 4.

23 denotes a spring locking-bolt which is adapted to engage the kneeling-board and hold it out of the way when not in use, as is clearly shown in Fig. 1.

24 denotes a rod or support for the kneeling-board when in use, which is pivoted to the under side thereof, so that when the kneeling-board is retained out of operative position, as in Fig. 1, the support will lie closely in contact therewith and be wholly out of the way, and when the kneeling-board is dropped down to its operative position, as in Figs. 2 and 4:, the rest will drop down to its operative position and provide a support for the weight of the user. In order that the suggestion of a chapel may be as complete as possible, the inner sides of the door are ordinarily so decorated as to resemble the interior of a church or chapel. The altar may be made more or less elaborate, and more or less candles or lamps may be placed about the altar. In the present instance I have shown one candle or lamp each side of the altar. In practice I provide incandescent electric lights and electrical connections, so arranged that the lamps are automatically lighted by the opening of the doors and extinguished by the closing of the doors. In the present instance I have shown a battery 25 at the back of the cabinet and Wholly concealed from view in front. Electrical connections 26 from the battery include the candles or lamps in the circuit.

27 denotes contacts in the circuit which are normally out of contact, as in Figs. 5 and 6, so that the circuit is normally broken. Then the doors are thrown to the open position, as in Fig. 7, door 5 presses against one of the contacts and throws it into engagement with the other contact, thereby completing the circuit and lighting the lamps.

The operation is as follows: When the altar is not in use, the kneeling-board is lifted, as in Fig. 1, and retained out of the way by means of the locking-bolt, the doors of the cabinet being at the closed position and the altar concealed, as in Figs. 1, 5, and 6. \Vhen it is desired to use the altar, as in an act of devotion, the user disen gages the spring-bolt from the kneeling-board, which allows the latter to drop down to the position shown in Figs. 2 and 4, extension 22 being in contact with bulb 21. The instant the user kneels upon the kneeling-board the latter will be pressed down until the rest 24 comes in contact with the floor, extension 22 acting to compress bulb 21, and consequently to expand bulb 19, it being understood, of course, that one of the bulbs is normally expanded and the other collapsed. The compression of bulb 21 by means of extension 22 drives the air from bulb 21 into bulb 19 and expands the latter, thereby moving head 18, rod 12, and the doors from the position shown in Figs. 1, 5, and 6 to the position shown in Figs. 2 and 7, this movement taking place against the power of spring 10. As already explained, the opening of the doors will also act to close the electrical circuit and to light the candles or lamps about the altar, which will remain lighted as long as the user kneels upon the kneelingboard and retains the doors in the open position. The instant the user rises from the kneeling-board, however, spring 10 will act to close the doorst'. 6., move them from the position shown in Figs. 2 and 7 to the position shown in Figs. 1, 5, and 6head 18 on rod 12 acting to force the air out of bulb 19 and to force it into bulb 21, the latter being now fully expanded again and ready for use. The user then simply swings the kneelingboard into the position shown in Fig. 1, where it is automatically locked by the spring-bolt. Both the cabinet and the kneeling-board are so located as to be wholly out of the way when not in use, so that my novel oratory, while admirably adapted for use in religious familiesgenerally, more especially in Roman Catholic families, is especially adapted for use in small tenements, where all the floor-space is required for ordinary articles of furniture.

'Having thus described my invention, I claim 1. An oratory comprising a cabinet provided with doors, a rod connecting said doors, a spring acting to throw said doors to the closed position, a pivoted kneeling-board and connections intermediate the kneeling-board and the rod whereby pressure upon the kneeling-board will throw the doors to the open position against the power of the spring.

2. An oratory comprising a cabinet provided with doors, rods connecting said doors, a spring acting to throw said doors to the closed position, a pi voted kneeling-board having an extension 22 and intermediate connections, substantially as described and shown, which are operated by means of said extension when pressure is applied to the kneeling-board to throw the doors to the open position.

3. An oratory comprising a cabinet provided with doors, a rod 12 connecting said doors and provided with a head 18, a spring acting to throw said doors to the closed position, a pivoted kneeling-board, a collapsible bulb lying closely in engagement with head 18, another collapsible bulb adapted to be compressed by the kneeling-board and a tube connecting said bulbs so that when one of the bulbs is compressed by the kneeling-board the other bulb will be expanded and will move head 18 and the connecting-rod and throw the doors to the open position against the power of the spring.

4. An oratory comprising a cabinet having within it an electrical lamp and provided with doors by which it is closed, a rod connecting said doors, a spring acting to throw said doors to the closed position, an electrical circuit including the lamp and adapted to be closed by the opening of the doors whereby the lamp is lighted, apivoted kneeling-board and connections intermediate the kneelingboard and the rod whereby when pressure is applied to the kneeling-board the doors will be thrown to the open position and the lamp will be lighted and when pressure upon the kneeling-board is relieved the doors will be closed by the spring and the lamp extinguished.

5. An oratory comprising a cabinet provided with doors, rods connecting said doors at top and bottom, one of said rods having a head 18, a spring acting to throw said doors to the closed position, a pivoted kneelingboard having an extension 22, a collapsible bulb lying closely in engagement with head 18, another collapsible bulb adapted to be compressed by pressure upon the kneelingboard and a tube connecting said bulbs, substantially as shown, for the purpose specified.

6. An oratory comprising a cabinet provided with doors, one of said doors having arms extending obliquely therefrom at top and bottom, rods pivoted to said arms and to the other door, a spring acting to throw said doors to the closed position, a pivoted kneeling-board and pneumatic connections intermediate the kneeling-board and the doors whereby the latter are thrown to the open position when pressure is applied to the kneeling-board.

7. An oratory comprising a cabinet provided with doors and having within it electric lamps, a rod connecting said doors, a spring acting to throw said doors to the closed position, an electrical circuit including the lamps and having contacts normally out of engagement, a pivoted kneeling-board and pneumatic connections intermediate the kneelingboard and the doors so that when pressure is applied to the kneeling-board the intermediate connections will throw the doors to the open position, one of said doors acting to place the contacts in engagement thereby closing the circuit and lighting the lamps.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

DAVID MOKENNA.

Witnesses:

EUGENE E. BRENNAN,- ROBERT A. Lows. 

